FACEIT Major: London 2018 New Legends Stage Preview

The FACEIT Major: London 2018 is about to enter its New Legends Stage. The 16 teams taking part in it are the best in the world and the matches they will play are full of CS:GO betting opportunities. I this article takes we will take a look at who these teams are, what they’ve done so far at this event and what is likely to happen in the matches ahead.

Participants

The 16 teams taking part in the FACEIT Major: London 2018 New Legends Stage are the following:

Cloud9

FaZe Clan

Natus Vincere

MIBR

mousesports

Winstrike Team

G2 Esports

Fnatic

Team Liquid

Ninjas in Pyjamas

HellRaisers

compLexity Gaming

Astralis

TyLoo

BIG

Vega Squadron

Event format

The New Legends Stage of the FACEIT Major: London 2018 will be played in a Swiss System Format that consists of 5 competitive days. On each day, every team plays one Bo1 match against a team with an identical record of wins and losses within this stage. The matches on day 5 are Bo3 series. When a team gets to 3 losses, it is eliminated. When it gets to 3 victories, it qualifies for the next stage. In the end, 8 of the 16 participants will qualify for the 3rd and final stage of the tournament.

Top betting predictions

G2 Esports vs. HellRaisers

It’s been two months since we last saw G2 Esports at an important CS:GO event. The French team has had a long period of absence from the professional scene and has gone through multiple roster changes. Still, in spite of all this, G2 is one of the world’s best and will likely perform well during the New Legends Stage of the FACEIT Major: London 2018, just as it did in previous in previous CS:GO Majors.

On the other side we have HellRaisers, a team that finished the first stage of this event with a record of 3 wins and 1 loss. Overall, HellRaisers is a fairly strong team but certainly not at G2’s level. Its victories over North, Gambit and OpTic Gaming are no doubt a testament to its skill, but let’s not forget the team’s defeat against a stronger opponent, namely Team Liquid.

Betway puts the odds for this match at 1.90 – 1.80 in favor of HellRaisers, regarding the underdog as the real favorite simply because of its good form in recent matches. However, it’s very unlikely that G2 will lose to it given the much higher skill level of its individual players and the long training period they’ve gone through prior to this tournament.

Betting prediction: G2 Esports to win.

Winstrike vs. Team Liquid

Winstrike is actually the former QBF roster but shouldn’t be here simply because it’s not even a tier 2 team. The only reason why Winstrike was granted a top 16 spot at this Major was because QBF got a top 8 finish at the previous one, namely ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018.

Team Liquid is in great shape and proved its excellent form in the first stage of the FACEIT Major: London 2018. TACO and his squad won 3 consecutive matches with an overall round score of 51 W – 30 L and got a very easy qualification to the New Legends Stage of the event. Overall, Liquid is much stronger than Winstrike and should easily win this dispute.

Betway puts the odds for this match at 5.25 – 1.12 in Team Liquid’s favor regarding the result as being almost predetermined. And that assessment is absolutely correct.

Betting prediction: Team Liquid to win.

FaZe Clan vs. BIG

FaZe Clan should be back to its full strength by now as the roster has had plenty of time to relearn how to play with olofmeister. And given the team’s results in 2018, this match should be a walk in the park for this CS:GO powerhouse. BIG is nowhere near its level and struggled to advance to this stage with a 3 W – 2 L record in the previous one.

Betway puts the odds for this match at 1.40 – 2.75 in favor of FaZe Clan, which is incredibly generous given the circumstances.

Betting prediction: FaZe Clan to win.

MIBR vs. TyLoo

Since its latest roster changes, MIBR has shown great signs of improvement, winning one tournament (ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018) and getting a 5th – 8th place finish at DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018. YNk is obviously doing an excellent job as the team’s coach, which is why many people have very high expectations from MIBR at the FACEIT Major: London 2018.

On the other side we have TyLoo, an Asian team with a lot of potential but certainly not enough experience to beat the likes of MIBR. In the previous stage of this tournament, TyLoo barely managed to qualify with a record of 3 wins and 2 losses.

Betway puts the odds for this match at 1.35 – 2.95 in favor of MIBR, assessing that the match will almost surely be won by the Brazilian team.